I have suggested several times the site at http://www.zhubert.com/tutorial-daily for help in quickly locating words in the NT text, doing lexical work, parsing verbs, etc. If you have not tried it, you probably really do want to, even if you don't realize it yet.
Recently I have been getting requests to repeat the Greek elements course I have taught for our church. However, there just is not time with all the other courses I'm teaching now. But, there is a free tool to teach you New Testament Greek from the very beginning. Yes, free !! It is done by Dr. Ted Hildebrandt, professor at Gordon College (formerly at Grace College). You can find it at http://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/Ted_Hildebrandt/New_Testament_Greek/Video/00-GTLearnVideos.html.
Happy learning !!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Any Surprise Here?
Check this article, Testing the Faith.
In it, "emergent church" leader Tony Jones says this: "I now believe that gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, and queer individuals can live lives in accord with biblical Christianity (at least as much as any of us can!), and that their monogamy can and should be sanctioned and blessed by church and state."
In it, "emergent church" leader Tony Jones says this: "I now believe that gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, and queer individuals can live lives in accord with biblical Christianity (at least as much as any of us can!), and that their monogamy can and should be sanctioned and blessed by church and state."
I Just Can't Resist
Can't resist what? Letting everyone know this Monday morning that I am a joyful new father-in-law. Yes, on Saturday, November 22, 2008 my oldest son Joshua was married!! It was a fantastic day, with a ceremony of worship that gave glory to Christ alone.
Laura and I publicly welcome Joshua's wife Gena (formerly Bulgrien) and her family to ours. Congratulations to both of you.
Laura and I publicly welcome Joshua's wife Gena (formerly Bulgrien) and her family to ours. Congratulations to both of you.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Nothing New Under The Sun
In just a few lines I'll give you a quote. No, you won't have to guess who it is - I'll tell you. But, do read it before you observe who it is. Why?
Because I suspect you should realize what is being said before you look at who is saying it, and then the significance will be quite obvious.
My comment first: this quote is not trendy, new, different, postmodern, emergent, emerging, relevant, and so on; rather it is quite "modern", liberal, establishment, just plain "old-fashioned", traditional, theistic evolution.
Are you ready? Here it is. Discussing the mess the systems of the world are in (what some of us would call systemic sin), this author says, the mess can "destroy good and living things, devalue what is precious, overvalue what is worthless, foul up the results of millions of years of evolution, and so desecrate and frustrate what I believe is a sacred and ongoing work of the Creator, in us, among us, and through us." There you have it! He said that sin is essentially messing up what evolution has accomplished, albeit through "God".
Who said this? Brian D. McLaren in "Everything Must Change", Nelson, 2007, p. 53.
How irrelevant!
Because I suspect you should realize what is being said before you look at who is saying it, and then the significance will be quite obvious.
My comment first: this quote is not trendy, new, different, postmodern, emergent, emerging, relevant, and so on; rather it is quite "modern", liberal, establishment, just plain "old-fashioned", traditional, theistic evolution.
Are you ready? Here it is. Discussing the mess the systems of the world are in (what some of us would call systemic sin), this author says, the mess can "destroy good and living things, devalue what is precious, overvalue what is worthless, foul up the results of millions of years of evolution, and so desecrate and frustrate what I believe is a sacred and ongoing work of the Creator, in us, among us, and through us." There you have it! He said that sin is essentially messing up what evolution has accomplished, albeit through "God".
Who said this? Brian D. McLaren in "Everything Must Change", Nelson, 2007, p. 53.
How irrelevant!
Friday, October 10, 2008
A Biblical Pattern For Expository Preaching
There is a powerful and exquisite pattern (not prescription) for the exposition of the Word of God seen in Nehemiah 8:1-18. Nehemiah records a preaching event that marked the temporary end of the "famine...for the hearing of the words of the Lord" (Amos 8:11), bringing revival in Jerusalem. Stephen F. Olford suggested in his booklet "Preaching the Word of God" (Encounter, 1984; p.36) that Jesus Himself would have been familiar with this preaching pattern, and followed it in His preaching - the Master modeling the method! Olford shows these same points from Jesus' Emmaus Road conversation in Luke 24:25-35.
Without giving the entire exposition here (but let me assure you, this will preach!!), let's observe some high points from the chapter to help us think about biblical expository preaching. I've organized these high points into three - (1) The People's Motivation, (2) The Preachers' Method, and (3) The Power Manifested.
(1) The People's Motivation (v.1-6)
(2) The Preachers' Method (v.2-10); the whole method can be taught from just v.8!
(3) The Power Manifested (v.9-18)
We will look at some other examples in the Bible itself in future articles, but I hope you will consider this one along with my prayer for you as a preacher of the Word of God.
Without giving the entire exposition here (but let me assure you, this will preach!!), let's observe some high points from the chapter to help us think about biblical expository preaching. I've organized these high points into three - (1) The People's Motivation, (2) The Preachers' Method, and (3) The Power Manifested.
(1) The People's Motivation (v.1-6)
- (a) desire - v.1
-the people gathered of their own desire "as one man...and they asked
Ezra...to bring the book". Wouldn't you love to have that happen when you preach?
We're all here! We're ready! Bring us the Book! - (b) attentiveness - v.3
- "all the people were attentive to the book" - (c) honor - v.5
- "all the people stood up" when Ezra opened the book to read it - (d) praise - v.6
- agreement with the Word, "Amen, Amen!" with lifting of hands (at the Scripture reading, without music!) - (e) worship - v.6
-humility in worship
(2) The Preachers' Method (v.2-10); the whole method can be taught from just v.8!
- (a) Read the Text!
- he "brought the law before the assembly" (v.2) Use a Bible!
-he read it standing "at a wooden podium/pulpit" (v.4)
- he "opened the book in the sight of all the people" (v.5) Let them see it!
- he "read from it" (v.3,8)
- he read it with praise and prayer (v.6 "Ezra blessed the Lord the great God")
- cp. First Timothy 4:13 - (b) Restate the Truth!
- they "explained the law to the people" (v.7)
- they "translated to give the sense" (v.8)
- this is the exposition - (c) Relate the Thrust!
- "so that they understood the reading" (v.8)
- "This day is holy" (v.9). Now is the time for response!
- "do not . . ." (v.9,10) - direct application
(3) The Power Manifested (v.9-18)
- (a) repentance (v.9)
- (b) joy (v.10)
- (c) celebration (v.12)
- (d) continuation (v.13-18)
- (e) rejoicing (v.17)
- (f) daily obedience (v.18)
We will look at some other examples in the Bible itself in future articles, but I hope you will consider this one along with my prayer for you as a preacher of the Word of God.
A Question on the way to Exposition
A responder to this blog raised an excellent question about diagramming the text in preparation for making an expository outline. I would like to make sure that this question does get answered, because it is both helpful and important.
The essence of the question came from my recommendation of Lee Kantenwein's "Diagrammatical Analysis" approach presented in his booklet by that title. The question concerned the applicability of Kantenwein's approach to various literary genres of the biblical text. The responder felt that this approach to diagramming would work best for the epistles or other shorter, fairly direct kinds of passages, but questioned its helpfulness for diagramming other genres.
I do want to point out that Kantenwein has some good examples of using his approach with poetic material, and I have found it personally helpful with that genre. A superb example of this can be seen in George J. Zemek's "The Word of God in The Child of God" (a commentary on Psalm 119 - self published). From page 388 ff. Zemek provides his diagrams for the entire psalm with notes that relate to his expository outlines in the text of the commentary.
But mainly I want to say that I agree with the essence of the question. This form of diagramming is not best used with narrative, apocalyptic, and longer portions of text. It can take way too long to do and yields relatively fewer results than it does with other genres, especially the epistles. So what else should we do?
I probably should have mentioned this previously, so I am glad the question came up so I can mention it now. Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. has some great sections in his book "Toward an Exegetical Theology" (Baker, 1981) on what he calls "block diagramming". He gives both explanation and examples of what this is and how to do it in his book. This works well with longer and especially narrative portions of Scripture. It would be well worth your time if you've never seen it.
The point I really want to make is that we need some approach or tool that forces us to consider every word of the text in relation to its context. There is not a prize for getting your diagram correct, but there is great reward in seeing the importance and connection of every word to what is going on in the text itself. Whatever form you come up with to force you to do that work is good.
The essence of the question came from my recommendation of Lee Kantenwein's "Diagrammatical Analysis" approach presented in his booklet by that title. The question concerned the applicability of Kantenwein's approach to various literary genres of the biblical text. The responder felt that this approach to diagramming would work best for the epistles or other shorter, fairly direct kinds of passages, but questioned its helpfulness for diagramming other genres.
I do want to point out that Kantenwein has some good examples of using his approach with poetic material, and I have found it personally helpful with that genre. A superb example of this can be seen in George J. Zemek's "The Word of God in The Child of God" (a commentary on Psalm 119 - self published). From page 388 ff. Zemek provides his diagrams for the entire psalm with notes that relate to his expository outlines in the text of the commentary.
But mainly I want to say that I agree with the essence of the question. This form of diagramming is not best used with narrative, apocalyptic, and longer portions of text. It can take way too long to do and yields relatively fewer results than it does with other genres, especially the epistles. So what else should we do?
I probably should have mentioned this previously, so I am glad the question came up so I can mention it now. Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. has some great sections in his book "Toward an Exegetical Theology" (Baker, 1981) on what he calls "block diagramming". He gives both explanation and examples of what this is and how to do it in his book. This works well with longer and especially narrative portions of Scripture. It would be well worth your time if you've never seen it.
The point I really want to make is that we need some approach or tool that forces us to consider every word of the text in relation to its context. There is not a prize for getting your diagram correct, but there is great reward in seeing the importance and connection of every word to what is going on in the text itself. Whatever form you come up with to force you to do that work is good.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Trying To Get Back To It!
I'll try to get back to the series on exposition soon. Looks like the book recommendation project didn't go very well while I was gone. Sorry, especially to the one who requested it. I think the easiest way will be for me to just do what I was doing before, that is listing books from time to time as their importance comes up in the discussion.
I will recommend a few commentaries though: Darrell L. Bock on Luke (2 vols.) and Acts in the Baker ECNT series; Bruce Waltke on Proverbs in the Eerdmans NICOT series. Great resources, whether you always agree with the conclusions or not (remember, commentators are still just "common taters", although some are indeed quite brilliant and helpful). Since I'm currently preaching through Hebrews on Sunday mornings, let me say that I inevitably keep coming back to Homer Kent on Hebrews (BMH). Preaching through Ezekiel on Sunday nights, I have not found yet anything to improve on Charles Lee Feinberg (Moody), but I'm open to recommendations.
Someone asked me recently what novels I read. I confess that I do not have tons of time to put into novels right now, but I do try to stay aware. While I am into one now, the last one I finished was The Appearing by Kristen Wisen (daughter of the late Robert VanKampen). It was recommended to me, and yes it is one of those end-time fiction type novels. This book was written from the "pre-wrath" viewpoint, of course championed by Wisen's father, and the book is endorsed by Marv Rosenthal. It is well written and has a captivating story line. However, I would have to say that it confirmed all of my worst fears about the application of the "pre-wrath" position. What the church in the novel does is stockpile food and provisions, buy land out in the mountains where they make caves into dwellings, leave their jobs and homes behind, and so on. My concerns that warning or threatening Christians that they will go through part of the time of Jacob's Trouble causes them to not live by faith, take their focus off of the Blessed Hope, diverts them from the preaching of the Gospel, and leads them to rather selfishly head for a bunker were all validated in this book. Yes, there were, thankfully, some heroes of faith in the story. But, overall, I give the book a "thumbs-down" on the point it is trying to make.
OK, last one. I've started using Beale and Carson's Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (Baker) and am finding it a valuable time-saving tool when this comes up in the text. I just used it for Hebrews 7 and Melchizedek and appreciated the sourcework I saw there.
I will recommend a few commentaries though: Darrell L. Bock on Luke (2 vols.) and Acts in the Baker ECNT series; Bruce Waltke on Proverbs in the Eerdmans NICOT series. Great resources, whether you always agree with the conclusions or not (remember, commentators are still just "common taters", although some are indeed quite brilliant and helpful). Since I'm currently preaching through Hebrews on Sunday mornings, let me say that I inevitably keep coming back to Homer Kent on Hebrews (BMH). Preaching through Ezekiel on Sunday nights, I have not found yet anything to improve on Charles Lee Feinberg (Moody), but I'm open to recommendations.
Someone asked me recently what novels I read. I confess that I do not have tons of time to put into novels right now, but I do try to stay aware. While I am into one now, the last one I finished was The Appearing by Kristen Wisen (daughter of the late Robert VanKampen). It was recommended to me, and yes it is one of those end-time fiction type novels. This book was written from the "pre-wrath" viewpoint, of course championed by Wisen's father, and the book is endorsed by Marv Rosenthal. It is well written and has a captivating story line. However, I would have to say that it confirmed all of my worst fears about the application of the "pre-wrath" position. What the church in the novel does is stockpile food and provisions, buy land out in the mountains where they make caves into dwellings, leave their jobs and homes behind, and so on. My concerns that warning or threatening Christians that they will go through part of the time of Jacob's Trouble causes them to not live by faith, take their focus off of the Blessed Hope, diverts them from the preaching of the Gospel, and leads them to rather selfishly head for a bunker were all validated in this book. Yes, there were, thankfully, some heroes of faith in the story. But, overall, I give the book a "thumbs-down" on the point it is trying to make.
OK, last one. I've started using Beale and Carson's Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (Baker) and am finding it a valuable time-saving tool when this comes up in the text. I just used it for Hebrews 7 and Melchizedek and appreciated the sourcework I saw there.
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